Have you got several different media shares? If a media share is offline during one of the 2min-ly UpdateMedia scans, it will mark all the contained media as unavailable and so it won't appear in the Orbiter. Apparently, when you have 2 or more media shares on your system this can cause the auto mounting system to get screwed up and not mount the shares when needed, artificially causing the above problem. I haven't seen it, but have read comments from Totallymaxed on the subject. Apparently, they use a workaround by setting up a shell to cd into a directory on each of the shares to force it to stay mounted. He did say they were looking at a fix, but I don't think that has gone anywhere yet.

hmmm pigdog... I'm confused now.... you weren't talking about DVDs encrypted or otherwise in your original post, that was about the media database which is completely separate from the issue you have just posted about.... Don't think I can help you on the DVD question. But re-read my comments on the UpdateMedia/media database/auto mounting stuff, as that may be your solution to the original post...

On the media issue, the pnpqueue is only relevant for pnp discovery of devices, not media. Each time the system detects a device, an entry is added to the queue. If the signature of that device is unknown, then it will go through the process of prompting you to add the new device to your system. If it is known, then it simply marks the device as online.

If you still have that NAS device in your devices tree, then the pnpqueue process will only mark it as online. So first check the device is there, and whether the online tick box is ticked. If it isn't ticked, and ticking it doesn't remain after, say, 5 seconds, then you may have the CIFS/SMBFS issue. You can change the protocol in the share device's device data, it should be set to cifs by default. Change that to smbfs and save, then tick the tick box again. This should then stay ticked.

Once you have confirmed it stays ticked, if you still can't access your media, then I can only assume that it is the automounting process getting stuck, as described above. Reboot, then go to a terminal shell, then cd into a directory on that share:

cd /home/public/data/audio/<nassharename>then ls -al to confirm you can see the contents. Now just leave that terminal shell open and that will force it to stay mounted. Now continue to use that MD/hybrid as normal, if it is that problem then this should fix it temporarily. If so, then you can set up a script to cd into that folder on reboot as a workaround.

OK, if its only missing some media but not others off the same share, then it isn't your devices or the CIFS/SMBFS thing.. didn't realise that was the situation.

But if it is in Other, then this means you didn't add the shares as "use LMCE's folder structure" you must have used "make all media public" and that will be your problem for certain files missing.

If at all possible, you should _always_ add your shares using the LMCE folder structure. The other issue is they are read only. You need to make them r/w, and then add them using LMCE's folder structure. This way, LMCE will be able to create the correct folder structure to find your media. Then just move the files into the appropriate folders. And let UpdateMedia discover them.

Not using the LMCE folder structure means that all media MUST be properly tagged to show up in the Orbiter. Those files that aren't appearing are probably not tagged properly. Do the above and you will be able to see them in the Filename sort mode irrespective of tagging.

But this doesn't explain why you are having issues playing them. Firstly, don't test with DVD rips, to eliminate one variable. Only test using .avi's or something. I still think there is the possibility that the issue Totallymaxed has described is causing this other issue. And certainly, the not using LMCE folder structure is the reason you cannot see the shares under /home/public/data/video ... go to LMCE folder structure, and the symlinks will appear in those folders, then you can CD into them to hold the shares mounted permanently.... then test again with avi's ... that should fix that issue.

Only once you have done these 2 things should you move on to troubleshooting the DVD issue so that you can be sure nothing else is causing your issues...

Seriously, do not use "make media public" unless you have a _real_ reason to do so. I don't see one here (they are rare, and realistically only if you are using another media source such as NAS where another application _insists_ on a particular folder structure that is different from LMCE. Otherwise, use LMCE's structure)

LMCE does not change your media files at all with the exception that meta tag changes in mp3 files (only) will get updated on the mp3 file itself... so no, it won't corrupt anything.

If I change the file structure and make all media public will certain files still go missing (if properly tagged)?

these are opposites, you choose LMCE's folder structure as an alternative to making all media public (don't get confused with other locations where LMCE talks about making things public, such as ripping disks, this is purely when you add a new share. So you need to delete these shares from your system, and allow it to redetect, then choose LMCE's structure, not public. Make sure the shares are r/w first!)

I don't know how VOBs are handled, but really, if you are ripping disks you are far better to rip them using LMCE's ripper as .dvd files (same as .iso files) as you are eliminating a potential complexity... there is no reason to have dozens of VOB and other DVD files hanging around, they are opaque and confusing. Far better to have a single .dvd/.iso file that is treated exactly the same as the VOBs but simpler and less likely to get screwed up. I realise that you have already got 1.5TB of these, but this is the best advice I can give you.

The user_# folders are for private media for your individual users (which doesn't work all that well)

There will also be a public folder on your NAS at the same level as the user_1 and user_2 assuming that you have read-write access to the share so that LMCE can create it. If not, make sure you grant read-write access to the shares, then manually create a "public" folder at the same level, then create the same folder structure as you see under user_1. Now relocate all your media from user_1/data/audio|video|etc into public/data/audio|video|etc - remember, if you move the files (not copy) it will effectively be instant and not require more disk space on the NAS.

Once this is complete, on your core under /home/public/data/audio|video|etc/Windows Share-Volume_1 [65]/ you will see your media.... this is how LMCE works, the remote shares are mounted onto each MD including the core/hybrid under /mnt/device##, it then symlinks each audio|video|etc folder into the same /home/public/data path so that all your shares, wherever they are physically located around the house, all appear to be in the same location under the /home/public path.... making your media library consistent, and so that every MD can access the media files using the exact same path.... its clever like that!

Now, once they are there, your UpdateMedia daemon will eventually scan them into the database. This will take a while. But only once this is done will you see them in the Orbiter media grids. (actually you will see each folder appear as it completes that folder). But remember, you must change the Orbiter's Sort menu (bottom left in UI2 and in Options in UI1) to Filename. Now you will see all your media.

Make sure it all appears first, only once you have confirmed that this issue is resolved, move on to the unreliable play issue.....

Unreliable play - try the CD (change directory) method I detailed earlier into the /home/public/data////etc folders cd into one folder per share only.

Retranscoding.... that is going to be a lot of work, as transcoding takes a long time. If you really want to, you can probably use a combination of PowerISO and Handbrake. PowerISO should allow you to present a set of VOBs as a virtual DVD drive, and then use Handbrake to transcode them into a single AVI. But you'll have to experiement as I haven't used them for a little while.